What You Should Know About Non-Parent Visitation in Illinois

 Posted on March 11, 2021 in Child Custody

Once your divorce is wrapped up, you and your family will embark on new journeys and a brand new way of life. When you and your ex-spouse share children, arrangements for parenting time and the allocation of parental responsibilities must be made, resulting in new routines and a lifestyle that you and your children were not previously accustomed to before the divorce. While these new arrangements can take some getting used to, they often result in happier, healthier homes and habits for you and your children.

Depending on your family situation, however, you may wish to take other people into consideration, such as grandparents, mentors, and close family friends.  Who will have visitation rights, and what will those rights look like? How will you determine which non-parents will spend time with your children, and how will you negotiate those parameters?

Non-Parent Involvement

If the visitation rights of non-parents are not addressed in the parenting plan, they can be granted by the court using the following guidelines:

• Grandparents, great-grandparents, step-parents, and siblings of a minor child are eligible to present a petition for visitation and electronic communication under certain circumstances.

• Electronic communication may include phone conversations, e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, and other wired or wireless technologies.

• If a child’s parents were never married, legal parentage must have been established before the grandparents on a parent’s side can request visitation privileges.

• The court may grant visitation privileges to a non-parent that do not include overnight or custodial visitation.

The court will determine whether visitation for non-parents is warranted by taking all of the following into consideration:

• The child’s wishes

• The child’s mental and physical health

• The quality and nature of the existing relationship between the child and non-parent

• The good faith of the person filing the petition

• Whether visitation is able to be structured in a way that reduces the child’s exposure to any conflict between parties

Contact a Kane County Family Law Attorney

These are just a few factors taken into account by the judge and court when addressing a visitation petition that involves adults other than the child’s parents. If you are going through a divorce or you are a grandparent, relative, or close friend of a child of divorce and have questions regarding your rights, contact a St. Charles divorce lawyer to get the guidance you need. Call 630-584-4800 for a free consultation at Goostree Law Group today.

Source:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&SeqStart=8300000&SeqEnd=10000000